While in Australia the learning school group spoke to members of Staff at both UC SSC Lake Ginninderra and UC High School Kaleen about programmes which meet different needs of pupils.
English as a Second Language – UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
There are a number of international students studying at Lake Ginninderra for whom English is not their first language. Some students study in Canberra with the clear aim of getting into an Australian university, and in mainstream classes there is sometimes little allowance for those who struggle with English.
In terms of class work it’s pretty strict – they can’t have any absences, they can’t fail any classes and some of them depending on the country that they’ve come from, they can’t get anything less than an A. And if they do that they’re sent home. So they’re on a pretty strict schedule and they’ve got their own incentive for being here, so they don’t need motivation they just need support, and that’s what Heather provides.
Graham Budd – Head of Student Services, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The English as a Second Language department provides additional support for students with their listening, speaking, reading and writing. For the refugee students, developing writing skills is particularly important because this is something they tend to have difficulty with. If the students choose to do a tertiary package they can take ESL as an alternative to mainstream English, which counts towards university with the restriction that they cannot take English as a university course.
Heather Donohoe described how the ESL department is benefiting from the school’s close links with the University of Canberra.
Next term there is going to be literacy support from pre-service teachers from the University of Canberra who are obliged to do a term of volunteer work and some have chosen to help refugee students at this school or at primary school and so they’ll come in once a week and have one to one work with them.
Heather Donohoe – ESL teacher, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
In her role she is often in communication with outside agencies and other schools, which is beneficial in terms of sharing ideas and providing a network of support.
We meet once a term with the international student coordinators from all colleges and high schools. And ESL teachers meet usually once a term so that’s helpful. And then I’m a member of the professional association so we have meetings once a month...So there’s quite a lot of interaction, really.
Heather Donohoe – ESL teacher, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The students are sometimes allowed more flexibility with their assessments to take into account their problems with English. They may be allowed into the exam 10 to 15 minutes early to read over the paper and ask any questions if they don’t fully understand the context. In some cases teachers from other departments (such as maths) who now have more experience of dealing with ESL students, have altered the language used in exams to make it more accessible.
Heather talked about other ways which the ESL department supports these pupils. The students are hosted with families, so the department is responsible for liaising with these families to make sure the student is being cared for. There are other ways in which students may need help - she spoke about one student who had a particular problem with stuttering, who they helped see a speech therapist in Sydney.
I said ‘Look a whole year has elapsed and you’ve only had one visit, we need to do something’, he said, ‘Oh, just leave it.’ And I said ‘No, this is an issue for you and it will be for the rest of your life if you don’t overcome the problem, it’ll only get worse,’ as far as facing new people and things like that. So you do...end up getting involved in you know, their health and welfare and social issues and that sort of thing as well.
Heather Donohoe – ESL teacher, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
Connect 10 Program – UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The Connect 10 Program is an Alternative Transition Education Pathway designed for students in Years 9 and 10 who will benefit from a flexible, personalised program to assist with successful engagement in learning.
Student Prospectus – UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
For those who are not currently engaging with school the Connect 10 program can be very useful for finding an appropriate pathway for them either towards future schooling, training or work. There are many factors which may impede students performance in high school, and left in mainstream education their presence can in some cases be very disruptive.
They have to go through an interview process where high school doesn’t work for them – they’ve had a troubled background, and then normally…their I.Q. is very low and it’s restricting them from learning therefore that leads to not behaving properly, and then disrupting and then just destroying. That’s sort of the scale. Not understanding – disrupting – destroying!
Graham Budd – Head of Student Services, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
In the Connect 10 program the staff work to construct an Individual Education Programme for each student to help set out the most appropriate path for them. This is possible because of the low student / teacher ratio they experience in the programme, which is quite different to normal mainstream education.
The kids are all in individual programmes, that are designed to meet their specific needs. And we break the day into a number of sessions. The morning sessions tend to be academically based, heavy focus on literacy / numeracy, because they’re the skills they need to be able to effectively operate in mainstream schools or in a workforce.
Roger Amey – School Leader, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The program offers support for a wide range of issues, as factors in a student’s personal life can have a massive impact on their performance at school. To achieve this it is important to have good links with outside agencies and communication with families.
We also connect the kids a lot with other services that can provide them with support; such as helping them where they live, health issues, family conflicts, dealing with agencies that they have to deal with and so on.
Roger Amey – School Leader, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
While the program clearly supports some vulnerable students, it is perhaps not at its most efficient in its current form. Roger noted that the biggest problem with Connect 10 was that it was not set up by the school to meet specific problems they were facing, but rather it was implemented by a government department. As such, it was designed to help those who “aren’t attending” school, but under this category there is a whole spectrum of needs which students may have.
No one programme or no one school can meet the needs of every student. So these sorts of programmes need to be developed on the basis of need and then programmes written for specific needs and then resourced. Rather than the way it was set up, ‘Here are the resources, develop the rest now.’
Roger Amey – School Leader, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
While it may be difficult for the Connect 10 program to meet the needs of all students sent to them, it is still good that the school is making a concerted effort to take students who are not engaged with school and try different things to move them forward towards work or study.
Some [students] have been successful, some of them haven’t. But it’s a program [which] deserves to be around, whether it’s in the format that it is, it’s still debatable. It’s debated every year whether we should do it this way or do it another way. But at least we’re trying, we’re not giving up on those kids and telling them to just go away, hide somewhere else, be someone else’s problem.
Graham Budd – Head of Student Services, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The Pathways Program – UC SCC Lake Ginninderra & UC High School Kaleen
Pathways plans are another way in which UC SSC Lake Ginninderra and UC High School Kaleen implement personal learning plans.
Pathway plans supports the AC commitment and basically that is a situation that has existed since last year where...I suppose it’s about every student counts and no student will be lost.
Fiona Chester – Moving Forward Officer, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
With Pathway Plans the student works closely with a member of staff to look at their individual strengths and weaknesses with a view to identifying the next steps they need to take in their education. Much like with Connect 10, if a student is disengaged with education, Pathways Planning should be a means for the moving forward officer to evaluate what else the school could be doing to connect with that student.
The Pathways Plan is a state wide initiative, which is applicable to all students wherever they may be.
It might be that students have gone [to] juvenile detention so they will have a Pathway Plan that’s the same as everybody else across the system. In private or public schools regardless of where you are you’ll have a Pathway Plan. And the youth commitment in the ACT state said: up until age of 17 you must be basically earning or learning. You can’t be just sitting at home, doing nothing.
Fiona Chester – Moving Forward Officer, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The Pathways Plan looks towards the future, and can be an important motivation for students to think about what they will do after school.
The idea of the programme is to give the students opportunities to go out and [have] work experience and give them ideas of what the next step is after school; so whether it’s college, university, going out into the workforce. And we can take the time, individualise what that student wants to do because normally there’s more than one way into that particular career.
Michelle Coleman – Teacher, UC High School Kaleen
By evaluating their strengths and interests the Pathways Plan may point the student towards areas they may be interested in pursuing as a career. Work experience can then play an important role in terms of trying out their ideas for the future.
Some students have no idea how to do what they actually want to do next so it’s giving them opportunities to experience different things and hopefully give them a taste of something that they might actually enjoy.
Michelle Coleman – Teacher, UC High School Kaleen
Their document exists in an electronic form as well, with the idea that it should be easily transferrable should the student change school or location. The students are encouraged to take ownership of their Pathways Plan, it should be a collaboration between the Moving Forward Officer and the student rather than allowing the student to take a passive role.
The idea is that [the plan] will follow that student to college, and if they change from Lake G. to Erindale college, it’s really easy to pass that document on. But it’s very much their document – they own it.
Fiona Chester – Moving Forward Officer, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The Excellence Programme – UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
& The Enrichment Programme – UC High School Kaleen
The Excellence Programme caters for “gifted or talented” students at Lake Ginninderra, that is those who show the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields (Prospectus, 2012).
The program has been established to give recognition to these students and to provide enhanced opportunities for them to excel.
UC SSC Lake Ginninderra Prospectus 2012
To be considered for the programme students need to provide a written application complete with referees and also attend an interview. There are many opportunities available to students through the programme, including: seminars, guest speakers, skill development (resume, interview, etc.), visits to tertiary institutions or organisations, and lectures. These students may also represent the school at certain functions.
A general aim of the programme is to provide these students with a wide range of opportunities so that they can make the most out of their college experience. They build a wide range of skills, receive peer and teacher support to help make sure they are coping with their level of achievement, and are generally encouraged to be proud of who they are. This type of program is important because quite a lot of support in school goes towards those who are struggling, with less provision for high achievers who also have (very different) needs that need to be met.
I think we should be giving as much support to every student as possible. We need to extend every kid and give them as many opportunities no matter what student we’re talking about. It’s nice to put a bit of extra time into the top kids as well as struggling kids.
Joella Keech – Teacher, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
There is a program on offer at UC High School Kaleen which also caters for high achieving students. There are two Enrichment Programs – one of year 7s and 8s and another for year 9s and 10s. The programs involve elements of individual research, various extension opportunities and debating. The year 7 and 8 program involves individual project work; and requires the students to write a proposal, a progress report and present their outcomes.
A large part of the Enrichment programme is the input from industry “experts” who work with the students on their projects. Nick Ewbank, who runs the program at Kaleen, said that this is an important aspect as it provides a real world connection for the students and takes their experience beyond that of a normal school project.
UC SSC Lake Ginninderra and UC High School Kaleen
While in Australia the learning school group spoke to members of Staff at both UC SSC Lake Ginninderra and UC High School Kaleen about programmes which meet different needs of pupils.
English as a Second Language – UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
There are a number of international students studying at Lake Ginninderra for whom English is not their first language. Some students study in Canberra with the clear aim of getting into an Australian university, and in mainstream classes there is sometimes little allowance for those who struggle with English.
In terms of class work it’s pretty strict – they can’t have any absences, they can’t fail any classes and some of them depending on the country that they’ve come from, they can’t get anything less than an A. And if they do that they’re sent home. So they’re on a pretty strict schedule and they’ve got their own incentive for being here, so they don’t need motivation they just need support, and that’s what Heather provides.
Graham Budd – Head of Student Services, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The English as a Second Language department provides additional support for students with their listening, speaking, reading and writing. For the refugee students, developing writing skills is particularly important because this is something they tend to have difficulty with. If the students choose to do a tertiary package they can take ESL as an alternative to mainstream English, which counts towards university with the restriction that they cannot take English as a university course.
Heather Donohoe described how the ESL department is benefiting from the school’s close links with the University of Canberra.
Next term there is going to be literacy support from pre-service teachers from the University of Canberra who are obliged to do a term of volunteer work and some have chosen to help refugee students at this school or at primary school and so they’ll come in once a week and have one to one work with them.
Heather Donohoe – ESL teacher, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
In her role she is often in communication with outside agencies and other schools, which is beneficial in terms of sharing ideas and providing a network of support.
We meet once a term with the international student coordinators from all colleges and high schools. And ESL teachers meet usually once a term so that’s helpful. And then I’m a member of the professional association so we have meetings once a month...So there’s quite a lot of interaction, really.
Heather Donohoe – ESL teacher, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The students are sometimes allowed more flexibility with their assessments to take into account their problems with English. They may be allowed into the exam 10 to 15 minutes early to read over the paper and ask any questions if they don’t fully understand the context. In some cases teachers from other departments (such as maths) who now have more experience of dealing with ESL students, have altered the language used in exams to make it more accessible.
Heather talked about other ways which the ESL department supports these pupils. The students are hosted with families, so the department is responsible for liaising with these families to make sure the student is being cared for. There are other ways in which students may need help - she spoke about one student who had a particular problem with stuttering, who they helped see a speech therapist in Sydney.
I said ‘Look a whole year has elapsed and you’ve only had one visit, we need to do something’, he said, ‘Oh, just leave it.’ And I said ‘No, this is an issue for you and it will be for the rest of your life if you don’t overcome the problem, it’ll only get worse,’ as far as facing new people and things like that. So you do...end up getting involved in you know, their health and welfare and social issues and that sort of thing as well.
Heather Donohoe – ESL teacher, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
Connect 10 Program – UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The Connect 10 Program is an Alternative Transition Education Pathway designed for students in Years 9 and 10 who will benefit from a flexible, personalised program to assist with successful engagement in learning.
Student Prospectus – UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
For those who are not currently engaging with school the Connect 10 program can be very useful for finding an appropriate pathway for them either towards future schooling, training or work. There are many factors which may impede students performance in high school, and left in mainstream education their presence can in some cases be very disruptive.
They have to go through an interview process where high school doesn’t work for them – they’ve had a troubled background, and then normally…their I.Q. is very low and it’s restricting them from learning therefore that leads to not behaving properly, and then disrupting and then just destroying. That’s sort of the scale. Not understanding – disrupting – destroying!
Graham Budd – Head of Student Services, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
In the Connect 10 program the staff work to construct an Individual Education Programme for each student to help set out the most appropriate path for them. This is possible because of the low student / teacher ratio they experience in the programme, which is quite different to normal mainstream education.
The kids are all in individual programmes, that are designed to meet their specific needs. And we break the day into a number of sessions. The morning sessions tend to be academically based, heavy focus on literacy / numeracy, because they’re the skills they need to be able to effectively operate in mainstream schools or in a workforce.
Roger Amey – School Leader, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The program offers support for a wide range of issues, as factors in a student’s personal life can have a massive impact on their performance at school. To achieve this it is important to have good links with outside agencies and communication with families.
We also connect the kids a lot with other services that can provide them with support; such as helping them where they live, health issues, family conflicts, dealing with agencies that they have to deal with and so on.
Roger Amey – School Leader, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
While the program clearly supports some vulnerable students, it is perhaps not at its most efficient in its current form. Roger noted that the biggest problem with Connect 10 was that it was not set up by the school to meet specific problems they were facing, but rather it was implemented by a government department. As such, it was designed to help those who “aren’t attending” school, but under this category there is a whole spectrum of needs which students may have.
No one programme or no one school can meet the needs of every student. So these sorts of programmes need to be developed on the basis of need and then programmes written for specific needs and then resourced. Rather than the way it was set up, ‘Here are the resources, develop the rest now.’
Roger Amey – School Leader, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
While it may be difficult for the Connect 10 program to meet the needs of all students sent to them, it is still good that the school is making a concerted effort to take students who are not engaged with school and try different things to move them forward towards work or study.
Some [students] have been successful, some of them haven’t. But it’s a program [which] deserves to be around, whether it’s in the format that it is, it’s still debatable. It’s debated every year whether we should do it this way or do it another way. But at least we’re trying, we’re not giving up on those kids and telling them to just go away, hide somewhere else, be someone else’s problem.
Graham Budd – Head of Student Services, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The Pathways Program – UC SCC Lake Ginninderra & UC High School Kaleen
Pathways plans are another way in which UC SSC Lake Ginninderra and UC High School Kaleen implement personal learning plans.
Pathway plans supports the AC commitment and basically that is a situation that has existed since last year where...I suppose it’s about every student counts and no student will be lost.
Fiona Chester – Moving Forward Officer, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
With Pathway Plans the student works closely with a member of staff to look at their individual strengths and weaknesses with a view to identifying the next steps they need to take in their education. Much like with Connect 10, if a student is disengaged with education, Pathways Planning should be a means for the moving forward officer to evaluate what else the school could be doing to connect with that student.
The Pathways Plan is a state wide initiative, which is applicable to all students wherever they may be.
It might be that students have gone [to] juvenile detention so they will have a Pathway Plan that’s the same as everybody else across the system. In private or public schools regardless of where you are you’ll have a Pathway Plan. And the youth commitment in the ACT state said: up until age of 17 you must be basically earning or learning. You can’t be just sitting at home, doing nothing.
Fiona Chester – Moving Forward Officer, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The Pathways Plan looks towards the future, and can be an important motivation for students to think about what they will do after school.
The idea of the programme is to give the students opportunities to go out and [have] work experience and give them ideas of what the next step is after school; so whether it’s college, university, going out into the workforce. And we can take the time, individualise what that student wants to do because normally there’s more than one way into that particular career.
Michelle Coleman – Teacher, UC High School Kaleen
By evaluating their strengths and interests the Pathways Plan may point the student towards areas they may be interested in pursuing as a career. Work experience can then play an important role in terms of trying out their ideas for the future.
Some students have no idea how to do what they actually want to do next so it’s giving them opportunities to experience different things and hopefully give them a taste of something that they might actually enjoy.
Michelle Coleman – Teacher, UC High School Kaleen
Their document exists in an electronic form as well, with the idea that it should be easily transferrable should the student change school or location. The students are encouraged to take ownership of their Pathways Plan, it should be a collaboration between the Moving Forward Officer and the student rather than allowing the student to take a passive role.
The idea is that [the plan] will follow that student to college, and if they change from Lake G. to Erindale college, it’s really easy to pass that document on. But it’s very much their document – they own it.
Fiona Chester – Moving Forward Officer, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
The Excellence Programme – UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
& The Enrichment Programme – UC High School Kaleen
The Excellence Programme caters for “gifted or talented” students at Lake Ginninderra, that is those who show the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields (Prospectus, 2012).
The program has been established to give recognition to these students and to provide enhanced opportunities for them to excel.
UC SSC Lake Ginninderra Prospectus 2012
To be considered for the programme students need to provide a written application complete with referees and also attend an interview. There are many opportunities available to students through the programme, including: seminars, guest speakers, skill development (resume, interview, etc.), visits to tertiary institutions or organisations, and lectures. These students may also represent the school at certain functions.
A general aim of the programme is to provide these students with a wide range of opportunities so that they can make the most out of their college experience. They build a wide range of skills, receive peer and teacher support to help make sure they are coping with their level of achievement, and are generally encouraged to be proud of who they are. This type of program is important because quite a lot of support in school goes towards those who are struggling, with less provision for high achievers who also have (very different) needs that need to be met.
I think we should be giving as much support to every student as possible. We need to extend every kid and give them as many opportunities no matter what student we’re talking about. It’s nice to put a bit of extra time into the top kids as well as struggling kids.
Joella Keech – Teacher, UC SSC Lake Ginninderra
There is a program on offer at UC High School Kaleen which also caters for high achieving students. There are two Enrichment Programs – one of year 7s and 8s and another for year 9s and 10s. The programs involve elements of individual research, various extension opportunities and debating. The year 7 and 8 program involves individual project work; and requires the students to write a proposal, a progress report and present their outcomes.
A large part of the Enrichment programme is the input from industry “experts” who work with the students on their projects. Nick Ewbank, who runs the program at Kaleen, said that this is an important aspect as it provides a real world connection for the students and takes their experience beyond that of a normal school project.